Although there are many remarks in school log books about the children being clean and tidy, there are also occasional entries which show that this wasn't always the case with all of them !
The kind remarks usually appear in the reports of the school inspectors.
The case shown here was one time in 1898 when the teacher at Llandewi'r Cwm School had to complain...

This Log Book entry reads -
14th January - "Was obliged to send James Price home yesterday owing to the filthy condition of his clothes".

Perhaps it is not surprising that an incident like this would be written in the school diary in the middle of winter. Many Victorian families were very poor, and they had little money to spare for fuel for heating fires and stoves.
Clothes washed in the winter would be very slow to dry, and it is no wonder that some children would not be keen in washing themselves in icy cold water before walking to school !
Remember that central heating, washing machines, hot baths and showers, and other things which we take for granted today were not part of little James Price's life !

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